Dr Alex Umbers grew up as a farm kid in New Zealand and moved to Melbourne 15 years ago.  As an adopted child, she’s has always had a fascination with nature and nurture and the relationship between mother and child.

She first studied a Bachelor or Science with Honours in Reproductive biology, and went on to undertake a PhD in medical research focused on pregnancy, namely how malaria infection affects the ways babies grow in utero.  As a postdoctoral scientist, her research led her to Papua New Guinea, where she spent several years working with large teams to better understand how to improve pregnancy outcomes in vulnerable communities. Inspired by local PNG clinicians, she finally jumped ship and went back and train as a doctor at Deakin University.  Now she’s training to be a GP specialising in Women’s Health, helping give a healthy start to life to local families.

At home on the coast, she loves being by the ocean with her new baby and slow time in the garden with her bees.

Dr Kara Thompson grew up in country Victoria and wanted to become an Obstetrician since she was in high school.

She traveled to Melbourne and studied undergraduate medicine, interspersed with a year off to travel and explore the world. She spent eight (8!!) long years training to be a specialist Obstetrician and Gynaecologist and made three babies of her own along the way.

For Kara, there is nothing more fulfilling, more important, or more special than to help care for and guide women through their pregnancies and the birth of babies. She feels privileged to be able to share in all joy of pregnancy, as well as all the pain and tears in between. If she won Tattslotto tomorrow, she would not stop doing what she does.

Kara now works as a specialist Obstetrician and Gynaecologist with an interest in high risk obstetrics and complicated pregnancies.  When she’s not birthing babies, she’s relaxing at home with her husband and her three kiddies, drinking coffee or searching for her next sleep in.